


Red Velvet Latte

by sweet_rabbit



Series: Red Velvet Latte [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Christmas Fluff, Comedy, M/M, finally proofread and edited to avoid embarassment, keith enjoys lance's legs, lance enjoys ballet and complicated coffee orders, true stories of being a barista
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:50:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8764831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweet_rabbit/pseuds/sweet_rabbit
Summary: Most regulars stick to their name sake and get nearly the same thing each time, ie their “regular.” But no, Lance was a regular in the sense that he just regularly came in. His coffee choices changed each day, though stayed consistent in Keith’s horror of them. Whether it be four ounces of coffee to four ounces of straight espresso, with a dollop of almond milk (yes, he did say “dollop” and made very clear that it better not be a “splash”), to an ice coffee in a hot coffee cup with two creams, thirty sugars, shaken not stirred, Lance made sure Keith knew of his existence very well and also made sure to take a deep gulp of whatever concoction he had come up with that morning right in front of the barista.Needless to say, Keith was intrigued.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not proofread currently! I'll edit it later, because I'm tired and somehow wrote this all today? LET'S DO THIS! CHRISTMAS!!!
> 
> EDIT: proofread and thank GOD because I screwed up super obviously, hurray~

*~*~*~*~*

The pumpkin spice latte was a staple in American culture by now, and it only took perhaps a decade for it to get that way. Rather impressive that something so basic as sticking to seasonal flavors turned into something that is demanded before the season even started. Keith can easily attest to that considering his barista position at perhaps the most popular coffee shop in town. He could go on for an astoundingly long time about how many people started asking for a pumpkin spice based coffee of their choice in August of all times. He would usually state that they should wait until pumpkin is actually in season, you know, during Fall and not still summer, but apparently Keith needed to work on his tone because he was quickly shoved to work behind the counter to stay strictly on coffee making. That was fine by him, he was fast and actually enjoyed the high speed of the morning rush as well as the added bonus of not having to interact with people in their pre-coffee mode.

Anyway, it was an undisputed fact in America that pumpkin spice was king of coffee flavors and was easily the most awaited special during the entire holiday season.

Which is why it was such a pain to figure out a Christmas flavor to follow it.

You’d think it would be easy what with all of the candies and chocolates out there, hell, peppermint would be the obvious choice. Yet, no, peppermint coffee only did so-so at their little business and the owner, Coran, was determined to come up with some flavor that would “wow” his eager clientele. It was going on Keith’s fourth Christmas working there, having started as soon as he was legally able to get a job at sixteen, now being nineteen, and he could definitely say that the spectacle of Coran’s efforts was more of a draw than the actual flavors by now, especially since he liked to have two to try and gauge which the public liked more.

After the first year of the classic peppermint and gingerbread, gingerbread won out between the two. Year two was gingerbread and egg nog. Again, gingerbread won out because people thought there was actual raw egg in the syrup. That part might have been Keith’s fault since when asked he wasn’t able to give a really clear answer given Coran was all about secrecy. Year three was gingerbread and cranberry. That was an upset in the employee betting pool because cranberry won then. Hunk stated that one should never underestimate cranberry lovers’ dedication to the berry, as well as it was on the strange side of flavors so customers were probably curious.

Which brings us to year four of Christmas flavors and Keith was disgusted with what he was expected to sell.

Red Velvet.

Red velvet flavored coffee, and he was forced to taste it and his expectations were absolutely realized.

“It’s like Coran made some basic syrup and poured a ten ounce container of red food coloring in it,” he had complained to Hunk, who admittedly had similar reactions at the taste testing.

“He might have put some mocha in there,” Hunk responded, though not terribly optimistic. “You know, since it's a chocolate cake technically… but yeah, lots of red dye #4 in here. In Coran’s defense, we do gotta have the color for the holiday effect!”

“Cranberry is less obnoxious in it's presentation than this, jesus.”

“Maybe we can convince Coran to come up with a cream cheese whip cream?”

“Yeah, that would offset the awfulness. Can you do that with cream cheese?”

“Oh yeah, just a lot of patience and careful folding.”

“What about storage and health code?”

“Crap, that might be a problem.”

“Man... Hunk?”

“Yeah, Keith?”

“We’re turning into the weird flavor coffee shop, aren’t we?”

“Dude we’ve been that since Maple Bacon Pancake back in September.”

Let it be known that Keith didn’t hate red velvet cake. In fact, he’d say it was one of his favorite flavors. It was just that when translated into a concentrated syrup and pairing it with a bitter drink, no matter how much sugar you pour into that it’s not going to improve the artificial flavor any time soon. Sure enough, after the first week of its existence and the initial curiosity and dares to try it wore off, the new Christmas flavor didn’t get too much business. Cranberry was still doing well, but Allura, their manager, was already trying to figure out how to convince Coran to bring back gingerbread.

Basically, every day following red velvet’s release, there was only one customer who seemed to be enamored with it enough to the point where he got it every morning before his classes.

And Keith was equally enamored with him… and his legs.

Hunk’s best friend, Lance Ramirez, was such a regular he might as well start working there seeing how he had started coming in every day ever since starting college. But no, it seemed he had a job teaching ballet to young kids at the moment while getting his degree in early childhood education with a minor in dance, and if that wasn’t the most adorable thing Keith had ever heard then you can shoot him now.

Lance and himself had apparently had multiple classes together throughout their high school career, but Keith didn’t pay much attention during that time. When Lance had found out about Keith’s nonexistent memory of him, the guy had been so offended that he seemed to have made it his personal mission to piss Keith off with his coffee orders. Most regulars stick to their name sake and get nearly the same thing each time, ie their “regular.” But no, Lance was a regular in the sense that he just regularly came in. His coffee choices changed each day, though stayed consistent in Keith’s horror of them. Whether it be four ounces of coffee to four ounces of straight espresso, with a dollop of almond milk (yes, he did say “dollop” and made very clear that it better not be a “splash”), to an ice coffee in a hot coffee cup with two creams, thirty sugars, shaken not stirred, Lance made sure Keith knew of his existence very well and also made sure to take a deep gulp of whatever concoction he had come up with that morning right in front of the barista.

Needless to say, Keith was intrigued.

At first he was admittedly pissed off every time Lance would swagger in, but when Hunk pointed out how he couldn’t stop talking about the Cuban for a full hour after he would leave and that, “only, like, 10% of what you’re saying has anything to do with his coffee order and more to do with how you want to take him on a date to show him what real taste is. Seriously, man, you’ve gone into explicate detailed planning to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if you have reservations at some fancy restaurant ready just in case… Have you?”

“Not yet, I haven’t!” Keith had responded threateningly.

A few days of fuming over Hunk’s accusations had left Keith keeping his mouth shut on the subject of Lance, as well as withholding his usual snarky comments to the guy. It left him a bid sad, missing their passionate arguments over whatever struck their fancy, but it also lead Keith to realize Hunk was absolutely right in his implying of Keith crushing on his friend.

Because Keith was totally crushing on Lance and he now regretted not noticing him in High School. So many wasted years of not admiring those ridiculously long legs that Lance liked to show off, whether he knew it or not. Keith had been concerned when the weather was getting warmer and he would no longer get to admire Lance In Shorts (tm), but what a foolish thought that was because he then got to gaze in awe at the multitude of colorful leggings or tights or whatever he would wear to his ballet classes. Then there were the skinny jeans, and man if that didn’t do things for his ass that Keith would forever be worshiping. Yes, fall and winter were clearly the superior seasons if Lance accessorizing all of his outfits was anything to go by.

If only he would notice Keith’s longing and also stop ordering shitty coffee. Then everything would be perfect.

“Keith, he’s not psychic!” Hunk finally yelled at him one morning. Keith may or may not have been going on a rant about how Lance was oblivious to all of his advances.

“Well what the hell else do you expect me to do?” Keith countered. “I’ve done all that I can think of for him to notice me-!”

“Sempai.”

“Stop it. What do you suggest, Hunk, huh?”

“Maybe not act like a second grader in your approaches?! I mean, you constantly insult him, rag on his interests, tell him he’s dumb, what are you trying to achieve here?”

“… Okay, when you put it like I see your point.”

“Oh my god, really?”

“So what you’re saying is that I should try being… _nice_ , to him?”

Hunk opted to give a dead stare before heading up to the register to begin the morning. So maybe Keith wasn’t being as obvious in his feelings as he thought he was, but in his defense he had never tried flirting before. That stuff was hard and at nineteen it was possible he was getting a late start on it. No matter, though, he had a ton of observation of it under his belt thanks to his brother, Shiro, dating Allura. Those two were sickening.

An order suddenly flashed up on the screen and Keith got to work. His mind, however, was still trying to figure out how to go about this “flirting” concept with Lance when all of their interactions tended to start with one of them making a snide comment. That was the first step, Keith decided as he began steaming some milk. He should try complimenting Lance, not insulting him. It should be easy considering he mentally praised every aspect of him from head to toe. The struggle came from saying it to his face as Keith just knew it would open up a flood gate of gloating from the guy, he was already constantly talking about how great he was… or maybe the opposite would happen and he would blush if he’s not used to others complimenting him?

Oh hell yes, Keith thought as the picture of a shy and embarrassed Lance appeared in his head.

Okay, step one was settled:

Keith would compliment Lance.

He wasn’t sure what step two was but could safely say that step three was “profit.”

Shouting out the order for the latte he had just finished, Keith glanced at the clock seeing that it would be another hour or so until Lance arrived for his morning coffee abomination. That gave Keith plenty of time to think of a praising comment for his future Christmas boyfriend that would surely knock the tights right off of him.

*~*~*~*~*

Okay, so an hour and twenty minutes was very much so not enough time, especially considering it was one of the busiest times of year and Keith was distracting by coffee orders piling up on him. It was so much that when Coran popped his head in he had to step up next to Keith and assist in the orders. Luckily the man was just as fast as Keith considering the shop was his life and so had decades of experience with ridiculously large amounts of people. It also helped that he could actually make the customers laugh as they waited for their caffeine fix. It was honestly kind of fun, with the jazzy Christmas music playing and the smell of coffee in the air, it was very festive.

And then Lance swaggered in and Keith realized, Oh shit I can’t speak.

As if the reminder that he was going to put his grand master plan of wooing the dancer into action today with only an hour tops of planning wasn’t enough, Lance was, of course, looking extra wonderful that day. His outfit consisted of just his dance tights, a basic black today, along with a large oversized blue turtleneck sweater and long coat. It was simple, but he could pull it off like a model with that confident walk and long, long, gloriously long legs. But then Lance had to go one step further and put a cute holly poinsettia clip in his short, wavy hair making the blue of his eyes pop.

Life wasn’t fair.

“Hunk, my man!” Lance greeted his best friend at the counter. “What’s with the crazy line? Wait, no, don’t tell me… Keith is slacking on the job.”

Aforementioned Keith felt his nostrils flare in indignation.

“Naw, just a regular Friday during Christmas,” Hunk said, which was the truth. “I’ve noticed the lower the temperature goes down the higher our sales go up. People being high on Christmas cheer helps, too.”

“I know, right? I find myself spending money like a drunken sailor around this time. Speaking of possibly drunken actions, for today’s coffee I think I want a medium ice coffee with three shots of decaf espresso, a third full of regular coffee, then the entire rest filled with that awesome red velvet flavor. Also, can I have a spoon of that stuff straight?”

Keith couldn’t do, he couldn’t hold it in and was way too close for Lance not to hear what came out of his mouth.

A scoff.

Sure enough Lance’s angry eyes appeared over the espresso machine, ready for battle as he raised up his middle fingers and started to give Keith a puppet show.

“Look at these two!” he was nearly shouting. “Going together on a cute little coffee date, just the two of them, and they’re going to get a big ol’ cup of red velvet coffee and there’s nothing you can do about it, Mullet, since they love life! Maybe you should take a hint, huh?!”

“Pfft,” Keith responded with an eye roll. “I love life, too, which is why I don’t like to coat my stomach in red food colored liquids, ruining perfectly good coffee.”

“Yeah?! Well… BETTY CROCKER HATES YOU!”

And with another infamous Lance come back, with Hunk cheering in the background, the dancer twirled around gracefully and stomped over to the waiting counter, the people already there giving him a wide berth. Keith, meanwhile, was left wondering how somebody so angry could be so adorable? Seriously, that hair clip had tiny jingle bells that rang with every stomp!

Keith was dying, but he had to persevere since Step One was a failure. Surely he could salvage this. He just had to ask himself, what would Allura do?

Looking over at his manager, he saw that she was in the process of pouring the steamed milk for a latte. She expertly tilted the cup slightly and started making tiny waves in the stream, no doubt creating a beautifully winged heart flower, or whatever. Keith admittedly wasn’t found of the concept of latte art. It was overly flamboyant and pointless since the person would just ruin it after barely admiring it. So despite being an employee for three or four years and being the fastest drink maker they had, Keith’s lattes just ended with a circle of foam on top. As long as it was correct it didn’t matter, though Coran had expressed a few times a desire for Keith to add some “flare” to his drinks.

Wait, Keith thought in the middle of his musing. Flare? Flamboyant? Actions that are pointless? That’s Lance!

With renewed energy, Keith knew what he had to do: create a latte heart.

He could see it now: Lance glaring at him as he was about to take a sip of his gross coffee drink, only to pause as he notices the heart. His eyes will widen and then turn to Keith, positively sparkling as his cheeks turn a cute shade of pink. Keith will be there, with a dashing yet charming smirk on his face, being his usual cool self only for Lance to then express his praise and admiration of his skills and beg for him to, “please date me and show me non gross coffee, Keith! Also, your hair is so COOL, I've just been jealous this whole time!”

A flawless plan with a soon to be a flawless execution. Yeah, Keith had never done latte art before but how hard could it be? So long as you steam the milk correctly, which he most certainly always did, the rest would just come naturally.

Then Keith remembered that Lance had ordered an ice coffee.

… The executive decision was made that it would change to a hot latte, while still keeping the nasty three shots of decaf espresso (an oxymoron if Keith were to ever see one), and then maybe an equal amount of the red velvet. Lance loved it, and Keith accepted him for it despite his own personal opinions on the substance. Besides, no future boyfriend of his was going to be drinking an ice cold beverage in near below freezing temperatures.

Keith cared, that’s what mattered here and it was for Lance’s own good.

And so he began his concoction of love, ignoring Allura’s glances at him then the screen trying to figure out what exactly he was making. After roughly ten pumps of the red velvet syrup into the medium latte cup, Keith ground the beans, tamped them and then clicked the portafilter into place starting the drip going. While the espresso went through, he began steaming the milk, keeping an eye on Lance to make sure he wasn’t being hit on by anybody else, until he felt the temperature get to the correct heat and stopped it, just in time for the espresso to finish it’s drip.

Now came the moment of truth.

Keith took the milk, hit it on the counter absentmindedly to dispel any bubbles, then swirled it and began to pour.

Okay, he mentally told himself. Allura has told you this ten million times to no avail, but we’re doing it now. For Lance. Yeah, it’s easy. Just pour then do your regular thing except then pull it through the center. No problem.

As Keith followed through with his plan, he quickly realized that he had a huge problem. When he pulled the last bit of the foam through, it made a straight line as opposed to cutting down the middle of a circle for the heart.

The love struck barista stared at this in confusion for a few seconds before he regrouped and looked into the pitcher of milk. Seeing that there was still some foam left, Keith swirled it to gather some more together and then poured two circles on the top sides of the line trying to move them to be more attached to the line itself.

Looking down at his work, Keith thought that it looked pretty good for a first try. It wasn’t to Allura’s level, no, but it certainly looked like a heart and hopefully it would get Keith’s feelings a little more across in a nonverbal way, aka, the best way in his opinion.

With a small yet pleased smile, Keith nearly swaggered himself to the waiting counter and had to hold back from victoriously spiking the latte down like a football as he announced, “Coffee for Lance!”

Hearing his name, Lance raised an eyebrow at the weird proclamation, given that usually it was the order itself that was yelled out, not the customer’s name. Either way, Keith saw him make his way over and could already see confusion on his face.

“That’s not my drink,” he said when he reached the counter, eyes locked onto Keith’s.

“I know,” Keith replied. “But why would you order an ice coffee in freakin’ December? I’m helping you with your health, be grateful.”

“Never! Customer is always right, and this customer demands what he ordered! Where’s Coran?”

“Busy, just drink it.”

“I don’t want to, I want to drink ice coffee.”

“Then I’ll make you one later, in the meantime drink THIS one.”

“No! If you’re going to make me one later, why didn’t you make it just now?”

“You’ll see if you would just drink your specially made latte, so drink it.”

“Oh god, you finally spit in it, didn’t you?”

“What do you mean ‘finally?’”

“Oh god, you’ve been spitting in all of my drinks all this time! I knew it, I knew they tasted funny!”

“They tasted funny because you keep putting as much crap in them as possible, you beautiful yet tasteless idiot! Now drink your latte! I made it _special_.”

By this point the two were mere inches away from each other’s faces, and so Keith got an up close and personal view of Lance’s reaction of being called “beautiful.” It was a slip up that Keith was willing to let go on his part since he was correct in that Lance had indeed turn into a blushing, stuttering mess of a man.

Suddenly finding his fingers very interesting, Lance opted to finally pick up his latte in an embarrassed huff. Before he was able to take a sip, though, his eyes caught the image in his latte before they snapped back up to Keith.

Keith waited coolly for Lance to say something.

Instead, he looked back down at his latte.

Then back to Keith.

Then back at his latte, then finally back to Keith.

Keith was not breathing.

After a full ten seconds (Keith was counting) Lance finally gave a response.

In that he nearly doubled over laughing, the bells on his hair clip jingling tauntingly.

Now with the attention of the entirety of the customers and staff, Keith felt the back of his neck heat up. Yeah, he knew it wasn’t a great heart, but did Lance really have to go and laugh in his face over it? Lance was kind of a jerk to Keith, but he was aware that it was partly because Keith was equally jerky to him. This was just starting to get cruel and Keith felt like his heart had just sunk into his feet.

“S-Shut up,” Keith muttered. “I haven’t done it before so just-”

“Aw man!” Lance interrupted, wiping some tears from his eyes to Keith’s further humiliation. “You finally clapped back!”

Okay, Keith’s humiliation had turned to confusion.

Lance seemed to notice this because he quickly continued with a huge smile, “I’ve been ordering crap coffee for literally months to tease you and you’ve only responded with a snort or whatever, never anything equal! I was starting to get really disappointed, I thought you were better than that. But I see you were just luring me into a false sense of security, you evil genius!”

“What are you talking about?” Keith finally forced out through gritted teeth.

“The dick! The dick in my latte, right here!”

Lance practically fell over the counter top to shove the cup under Keith’s face. Pushing it a little out of the way to get a better look, Keith quickly felt the humiliation part return at maximum speed because, yes, his latte “art” certainly did resemble a dick way more than a heart.

Clearly he was blinded by love in order to not see how much of a penis it was, it was so horrifyingly obvious then. He should have never added the two balls, at least then it would have just been a line but no, the balls had just brought the entire concept around full circle.

… And Lance loved it?

“This is so great!” he was saying as he dug his phone out. “I never thought you had it in you, huge props, Keith.”

He’d also never called Keith by his actual name before, always Mullet or Jerk.

“Take a picture with me with this!”

He certainly couldn’t say no to Lance as he smooshed his impossibly warm and soft cheek against Keith’s own as he held his phone in front of them.

“What’s your number, I should send it to you.”

Step three of “profit” was clearly in full swing.

“Oh, I should also share this, what’s this places’ tag?”

And there was Allura, who quickly confiscated the phone with demands to delete it and to also please see her in the back, Keith.

*~*~*~*~*

After being banned from ever making latter art again, Keith couldn’t help the fluttery feeling in his chest.

Lance _liked_ it.

He had Lance’s _number_.

 _His face had touched Lance’s face_.

Keith couldn’t help but think how he could have just moved his head slightly to the right and then maybe their lips would have touched and the picture would be of their first kiss and a latte dick. It would have been magical, but he would take the original he knew Lance had quickly sent to Hunk in order to keep it before Allura got to it.

After his shift had ended around two o’clock that afternoon, Keith was walking out to his bike and was about to text Lance just a confirmation that he got his number correct when he saw the boy himself leaning against his ride. It made him stop in his tracks, as well as stop his heart with the knowledge that Lance had obviously waited for him.

Seeing him, Lance stood up straight and met Keith halfway with an explanation of, “Hunk told me what time you got off today. I wanted to apologize for getting you in trouble, that wasn’t intentional believe it or not.”

“Oh, uh, no it’s fine,” Keith said. “I wasn’t in that much trouble. It was more that Allura was super embarrassed and you know, lots of customers that might be offended by you enthusiastically screaming, ‘latte dick!’”

“Yeah, probably not my best idea,” Lance laughed. His eyes crinkled a bit when he smiled that big, Keith noticed. “But, so, you’re good?”

“So long as you consider being banned from ever making any sort of attempt at latte art ‘good,’ which I do, then yeah, definitely.”

“Aw, that’s a shame. It was a good penis.”

Only Lance could say that with a straight face. Except…

“Um… Yeah, I’ve actually never done any latte art before this morning since I think it's a huge waste 'cause it’s going to get ruined anyway so why put the energy into it, right? And I’m, uh... saying this because it... it wasn’t _supposed_ to be a penis.”

“It wasn’t? Then what else would it be?”

“A heart.”

There was that blush on Lance’s face again, with an added lip biting to try and hide his excited smile. Keith could feel himself melting at how happy Lance looked and could only hope this meant more good things to come.

“So you… you’ve never made latte art before because you hate it? And you decide you’re going to change my entire drink order so you can try to make a heart? F-For _me_?”

Keith nodded, making Lance bury his grin into the collar of his turtleneck, his smile take up nearly the entirety of his face. Keith scratched the back of his neck, just to give his hands something to do as he waited for what Lance would say next.

“I need to go to my ballet class,” he quietly began. “We’re only a week away from our production of The Nutcracker, which I assure you will be nothing like the professional productions since it’s all five to ten year olds but they’re excited and I’m excited, so yeah, it’s super hectic right now but it’s that way for everybody, especially us since we also have finals and all so I’ll understand if you can’t make any plans right now-“

“What time does your class end?”

Lance looked up, startled, but quickly responded, “Uh, I got two back to back so around six.”

“Great. You got time to grab some food? I don’t have any reservations for anywhere but I’m sure we can find someplace that will be a huge improvement on your food choices if your coffee is anything to go by.”

Rather childishly Lance stuck out his tongue, but like most things he did Keith found it endearing.

“I only do that to annoy you, I’m surprised you haven't figured that out. But yeah, I’d love to! I’ll text you the directions to the studio later, okay?”

Keith could only nod again while a grin nearly split his face in two as Lance scurried off towards a bus stop, looking back over his shoulder at Keith multiple times before rounding a corner out of sight.

It wasn’t the most romantic or magical scenario out there given the Christmas season, Keith reflected. But it was very much Keith and Lance’s own, and Keith would make a thousand more latte dicks for that boy if asked, no matter how much trouble he would get in.

*~*~*~*~*

**Author's Note:**

> This is indeed based on real life happenings in my roughly four years barista experience and counting. Also, CHRISTMAS because why not! :D


End file.
